Golf 2

While we're on the subject I might as well continue on. The post below talks about my trip to Pinehurst. I noticed the video posting thing on here so I thought I'd show anyone who wants to see... my golf swing....

Not bad... But I have a ton of stuff I'm still going to work on. I want to get more flexible so I can have a larger amount of shoulder turn on the back swing with more body control. Right now I try to turn but am not flexible enough to really get back there without getting weight out on my toes (which doesn't usually result in good things). I'd also like to be able to hold the angle between my arms and the shaft a little bit longer before contact. Angle retension leads to more power and right now I have a little bit of a power lapse going... (even though on this trip I was still hitting the ball 280-330 most of the time off the tee)... I think most of my problem is synchronizing my hip turn and shoulder turn through the ball. When it comes together, its a beautiful thing. But yeah, sometimes it doesn't.

Golf is funny like that, you can be off by a split second with something and that little twitch has the capability to really set back your round. More later maybe...

Golf

Golf
I've been playing golf all my life, my parents have pictures of me holding clubs when I was two years old. My dad played golf for the u of o (back in the dark ages) so the sport really runs in the family. I'm a scratch player but I'm not a huge fan of the competition anymore. Don't get me wrong I still love playing the game, it's just that when I was competing I would really beat myself up over stupid things. It got to the point where I didn't even want to play anymore.
My senior year of high school our team failed to make it to state but I tied for the individual title in the metro league which allowed me to play in the state tournament anyway. I ended up playing horribly at state, posting scores of 75 and 78 at a relatively easy course. (To put things in perspective I was hoping to be around Even par for the tournament... 75,78 landed me at 8 over par). What made this worse was the fact that after the final round I went out to my home course (which is considerably harder) and played from the championship tees until it got dark outside. I was 3 under through the 10 holes that I finished and after that decided that maybe competitive golf wasn't for me. Between the summer after senior year and May of last year I probably played a total of 8 rounds of golf (considering in that same time span I used to play around 200).
It wasn't until last summer I got back into it. Last summer I took a job at a local course and though normally I spent time behind the register, from time to time I got to give lessons to little kids.
There is an LPGA tournament at my home course every summer and normally my dad plays in the pro-am, this last summer however he was gone so I got to take his place. A pro-am is where you get matched up with a professional golfer and play in a little mini tournament before the actual tournament. On top of this, my dad was turning 60 years old and my mom had decided to pay for him and I go to go Pinehurst (golfers paradise) together for 4 days. The idea of playing with a pro golfer for two days and going to Pinehurst kind of re opened me to golf. I practiced every day before work almost the entire summer.
The pro I ended up getting to play with was Heather Daly-Donofrio... Not one of the big names but still this girl could play. Here's her bio: http://www.lpga.com/content/2008PlayerBiosPDF/Daly-Donofrio-08.pdf
I went into that tournament playing pretty damn well. It was a scramble format (which I'm not going to bother explaining) but for 18 holes we turned in a score of 57.... which is flat out ridiculous (we won that day). I also won long drive that day: http://www.safewaygolf.com/classic/07_kraft_pro_am_results.asp
We won a ton of free Nike golf stuff. I got a new putter, some irons for my mom, some nice shirts, a new bag, shoes, etc...

Then it was off to Pinehurst the site of countless US amatuers and several US opens.
This is the finishing hole at Pinehurst #2 (There are 8 courses at this place)

Here's where we stayed: The Carolina Lodge

Pinehurst #2 has some of the craziest greens I've ever played on. You can be aiming at a pin from 200 yards away, hit the ball on a line about 6 feet left of it, and the slopes and swells will end up taking it off the green down a hill with an impossible shot coming back... It doens't seem fair but the course was built to test the best players in the world.

Now when we were in Pinehurst we played three different courses. Pinehurst #2, #4, and I believe #7. (#2 is the most famous of the bunch) I shot 73,72, and 75 respectively... A pretty darn good trip.

THEO!!!

I miss my dog Theo. He is the most adorable dog in the world. He's a golden retriver (the best kind of dog ever!) and he's crazy. Even though sometimes he acts like a complete idiot, other times he will just look at me with his droopy little eyes and it'll make my day ten times better.

A couple weeks ago, mom called me and told me he had cancer. It was the most terrible thing ever. Theo had been puttering around our house for the past 9 years, and I hadn't even thought of the option that he was getting old and would one day be gone. I'd just gotten so used to it. But when my mom told me that, I didn't know what to do. Going home would never be the same without that slobbery little guy jumping all over me.

Well we got lucky this time, because my mom took him in for surgery right away, and they got rid of the cancerous cells. But the doctors aren't sure if it'll come back. Anyway, ever since I found that out I've been taking tons of pictures of him. Here's one of them!